ECPA Reform

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was adopted in 1986. Since then, technology has advanced dramatically, and the statute has not kept pace. Under ECPA, government agencies claim they do not need a warrant to search private information, such as stored email, documents in the cloud, or even the location information generated by mobile devices. The time has come for ECPA to be reformed to ensure government agents must get a warrant before reading citizens’ private communications or tracking their movements.